Sebastian Woodbridge
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
Dark Miasma
If man were immortal he could be perfectly sure of seeing the day when everything in which he had trusted should betray his trust, and, in short, of succuming eventually to hopeless misery. He would break down, at last, as every good fortune, as every dynasty, as every civilization does. In place of this morbid existance we have death. ~Charles Sanders Peirce
Necromany and Death Magic have been around since the aspects of magic first made themselves known to humanity. The ability to wield the power of the Netherworld to ones desires are well documented, and throughout the ages many have peformed miraculous feats with this power. It is with the power of the Netherworld that Sebastian Woodbridge accesses his true potential as a Necromancer. Fighting not so much for what is right or what is wrong, Sebastian perceives the world in shades of lighter and darker greys, working towards a balance that would see equilibrium return to the world.
Contents |
Biography
Childhood and Adolesence
Sebastian Thanatos Woodbridge was born January 11th 1988, in Fort Hood, Texas in the military hospital located on the army base. His parents Nick Woodbridge and unmarried mother Eren Midway were servicemen in the United States Army, both ranked Major and Captain respectivly. Sebastian's parents had both been serving in the army for over ten years before his birth and both served in peacekeeping missions in the south pacific during it trouble times, alongside Australian and New Zealand forces. Nick Woodbridge would go on to marry Eren seven months later, much to the delight of both families. Eren Midway was brunette haired and had rich chocolate brown eyes, Nick was quite the reverse, blonde haired and blue eyed. Seb would inherite his mothers hair and his fathers eyes, becoming a striking young man even at a young age.
Soon after his birth Sebastian was sent to live in Dallas with his aunt Moira Midway and then eventually sent to board at Spaatz-Greenhill Military Academy in Addison. Sebastian was a fine student, not extraordinary but acceptable, he excelled in english, latin and history, he also served as the reserve quaterback for both his pee-wee and high school football teams.
Spaatz-Greenhill gave Sebastian an appreciation for both the military services and for order, and that order should be impossed and expected. It was at the age of fifteen when Sebastian began to recognise his own latent magical talent.
However, it was much earlier that dreams of the Netherworld and vivid depictions of Death had underpinned the young boys dreams, perhaps significantly compounding his mood swings. During this time Sebastian developed a psychiatric condition called 'Dissociative identity disorder', essentially Sebastian developed two independant personalities. The first, his true, bubbly, friendly self and the second, a brooding, tormented young man solely focused on the inevitability of death and despair. Bastian's first experience with true Death Magic though, was during a latin exam, where after reading a passage from his textbook, his entire class fell into a death-like slumber, only to be awoken by the efforts of the school debating captian Morpheous Onero who was two years Bastian's senior. Morpheous took Sebastian under his wing for the rest of th year and taught him what he knew about magic, after Onero graduated Sebastian took to studying magic on his own terms.
The following years of highschool saw the military minded Sebastian, complete his studies at school only to head back to his dorm room and begin studying magical law as best as he could. He gathered ancient texts from his school's extensive latin section, many of which Onero had asked to be added to the school's collection. From this late night study sessions, Sebastion deduced he had formed a connection to the Netherworld and in turn developed an affinity with Death Magic. However, even with this knowledge, something or someone still prayed upon the young man's mind whenever he slept or became to deeply involved with the arcane. It soon became evident to Seb that the figure who watched him was of magical origin and began to commune with his mystic stalker through poetry, letting the mystic guide his hand in response to his questioning.
This figure began to divulge darker secrets to Sebastion and through these secrets, Seb learnt the darkest of magical arts; Necromancy. As his necromacy spell, Sebastian took a stroll through the nearby cemetary and began the required chants. After several hours of latin prayers, two spirits of adolescent boys appeared before him and took possesion of the bones of a pair of twins burried nearby. The spirits identified themselves as Castor and Pollux, when pressed for answers if they were the Castor and Pollux of Greco-Roman legend, the twins merely laughed and to this day have not answered the question.
Sebastion Woodbridge graduated Spaazt-Greenhill as 'most likely to be possessed by a super villian' and top of his Latin class, achieveing flawless results for both his junior and senior years. After graduation Sebastion decided to move to Paragon City and begin life as a Magical Investigator. Armed with Castor, who could smell magical aura and scent, and Pollux who could 'see' fey lines and magical presence, Sebastian was soon recruited by a private company (Jungle Collection Inc) to work on tracking magical artifacts for them.
Adulthood
Paragon City proved to be an excelent move for Sebastian, he worked hard for JCInc and became one of the headline investigators and retrievalists. It was through his mastery of Necrosis that his skills with Necromancy flourished and led him to success in his endevours. Sebastian involved himself fully to his work and was involved with artifacts such as Flos Rutilus Rex Regis (The Red King's Crown), Tabernus Morpheus (Boots of Morpheus) and a rare Silva Amiculum (Forest Cloak).
Castor and Pollux were burried after their first summoning, however the skulls of the young boys were made into shoulder plates for Bastian's Necrosis magical form. These two skulls with their abilites, speak to Sebastian and noone else, they have become somewhat cynical counsellors for the young man, and as such Sebastian has managed to contain his severe personality disorder to only his Necrosis form. Castor and Pollux much prefer the agressive, pessemistic and brooding Sebastian, whom they affectionatly call Legion.
Over the past year, Sebastian's job has led him to Praetoria numerous times, and Jungle Collection has set up a safe house for him and the artifacts they collect from the dimension. Since the outbreak of hostilities between Primal and Praetorian Earth, the Jungle House as it is known has also become a bunker for storying magical items. An ongoing mission from JCI is the location of places of magical power and following of fey lines in Praetoria, Sebastian has been following this particular objective quite closely and has become somewhat of an expert on Praetoria's magical history.
Bastian has had four birthday's in Paragon and has no plans to leave yet, he enjoys his job and has made several new friends over the last few months. Falling in part-time with the Occult Magicians Guild, he is looking forward to expanding his magical knowledge and proficiency. His new friends are quite skilled in their own fields and he anticipates working alongside them.
Powers and Abilities
Sebastian's magic is primarily focused on manipulation of Death or Black Magic and through that Necromancy, however in order to perform his spells most efficiently and accuratly Sebastian has to enter a dangerous state of being called 'Necrosis'. It is in this form, which has affectionatly been called 'Legion' that Sebastian is at his most powerful and terrifying. This state causes Sebastion to place his physical and spiritual being halfway between life and death, thus resulting in an extreme decrease in health and cognitive state of mind. Through Necrosis, Sebastian becomes single minded, focusing singularly on the mission or task at hand, he has also managed to contain his Dissociative identity disorder to this form.
Necromancy
The use of Necromancy is considered a black art, often frowned upon by the many users of magic. It is however as Sebastian views it, a 'grey' art, neither inherintly good or evil. The act of raising the dead from their slumber while probably unnatural is according to Woodbridge.
"Only black or dark if you raise the dead against their wishes, or through the use of blood magic, and the difference between raising the 'departed' and the 'dead' is; The 'departed', are those spirits and souls who have moved beyond this realm, achieving peace with their life and equally their death, however the simply 'dead' linger on, reconciling with themselves or awaiting a necromancer, such as myself to breath into them some form of false life. Not once have I ever summoned a soul against his or her wishes and should I ever do so accidently, I would do everything within my power to assist that soul to depart from this existance and move on to the fields of elyssium. The last crucial difference I had to discern was that between a 'Soul' and a 'Spirit'. The difference primarily is between the goals each possess, a 'soul' desires to achieve peace and move onwards, a 'spirit' has made a decision to remain in this world, or is still undecided. I have in my company only one soul, that of The Tower. The rest of my allies are all spirits"
Sebastian's allies consist of eleven spirits and one soul, they each have unique personalities and traits, each discerning in their own unique individual ways.
The Twins
Sebastians very first summoned fiends, two highly conscious and highly magical twin boys. Both are spirits who have possessed the skulls of their former bodies in order to use their magical talents to assist Sebastian. They are quite friendly, but very often sarcastic and dark minded. What their true motives are is unknown. It is unlikely they are the Castor and Pollux of legend, it is more likely they were Roman twins who took the names in order to encourage their magical mystique.
- Castor - Died 44BC - Roman - Teenage Boy
- Pollux - Died 44BC - Roman - Teenage Boy
The Host
These six undead are Legions most common allies, almost always marching into battle with him, they lead the charge against his foes and friends alike. Each has a varying degree of loyalty to the mage, all however are willing to be called upon to aide him. The Tower is a special case, he has become a close friend of Sebastian and often appears on his own accord just to talk to the young man, whereas the Emperor despises Sebastian enough to blatently refuse orders from an unmasked Sebastian. The Hermit, Fool and Lover were three travellers who died in a boat accident, often they are unruly and enjoy playing practical jokes. They are more zombie like than any other undead that Sebastian can call and often enjoy portraying stereotypical zombie-like behaviour.
- The Emperor - Aquilla Germanicus Caesar - Died 117AD - Roman (claims) - Govenor of Roman Province (claims)
- The Tower - Edward Millar IV of South Cornwall - Died 1415AD - English - 1st Knight
- The Pirate - Rojo Espada - Died 1718AD - Spanish - Pirate Captain
- The Hermit - Thierry Cisse - Died 1901 - French - Fish Merchant
- The Fool - Patrick O'Harmon - Died 1901 - Irish - Bar Owner
- The Lover - Simon Todd - Died 1901 - Scott - Dock Worker
The Raw Spirits
These three summons are some of Sebastian's more powerful weapons to call on, they are the spirits of fallen dark magicians. The spell used to summon these raw spirits has to be channeled through a corpse, similar to summoning an undead minion, except that it requires the spirit to enter the world of the living in its own unprotected form. Sebastian performs this summoning through the use of the corpses of The Host. The raw spirits that woodbridge can call to his side are unable to make contact with physical beings, however being former magicians, they can use many of the same spells that Sebastian has access to through the use of Dark Magic. The spirits do not speak to anyone that Sebastian has ever met, nor would he know what to say if they did speak. For this reason, and that Seb fears they may contrive ulterior motives, Sebastian makes sure to only summon them for limited amounts of time.
NOTE: They are NOT necromancers, they are deceased mages
- The Lich
- The Hanged Man
- The Soul
The Servant
The Dark Servant is a curious blend of Necromancy and Death Magic, a combination of the two dark arts to create a spell that litterally gave life to shadow. The Servant is a living shadow, imbued with the will of Sebastian, it has its own directives and Sebastian only has limited control of the entity that he refers to as the Dark Servant. For the same reasons as the Raw Spirits, Seb only maintains the summoning of the Servant for a limited time.
- Dark Servant
Death Magic
Death/Dark/Black Magic is all the same with a small margin of variance, Sebastian uses the specifics of Death Magic. The primary difference between the three lies in Death Magic's inate conversion of living tissue into rotting or otherwise festering flesh. In saying that though, if used on flora Death magic will slowly eat away at the plant until only a compost heap remains. It is in essense the conversion of life into death, through the transferal of life from the target to the caster.As with all of the three magicks mentioned, Sebastians use of Death Magic is enabled through a connection to the Netherworld. This connection allows him to channel his Death Magic against his foes with the use of several spells and their variants.
Death Magic behaves much like an airborn virus, a single spell can jump to nearby enemies, to combat this dangerous contamination, it has a very short life span, spells last no longer than a couple of minutes depending on their potency and are dispelled by killing the caster. Also sharing the same family as Dark Magic, Death Magic attacks the senses first, specificly the eyes of living creatures. From their the magic will course through blood capilaries into the brain and begin the rotting process in the brain, slowly infecting the rest of the body.
Sebastian is not as potent with Death Magic as he could be, but instead he focuses his attention on Necromancy. This has lead him to adopting Death Magic as a secondary set of spells, rather than the primary set it would be for most Dark Magic users.
Spirit Chains
Along with his arsenal of Death Magic and Necromancy, Sebastian has manifested the ability to summon spirit chains. Spirit chains are magenta coloured links that bind themselves to the spirit or the soul of a creature, holding them in place physically and spiritually. When brought to the battlefield, Sebastian will often keep a Djinn half summoned into his own soul to more effectivly control the chains, by doing so the Djinn can maintain the exhaustice will and magic required to keep Spirit Chains on the field of battle.
Skills and Personality
On His iPod
- "This is Home" - Switchfoot
- "Firework" - Katy Perry
- "The Call" - Regina Spektor
- "Telephone" - Lady Gaga
- "Shake It" - Metro Station
- "Spotlight" - Mute Math
- "Rockstar 101" - Rihanna
- "Neutron Star Collision" - Muse
- "Mine" - Taylor Swift
- "Meet Me Half Way" - Black Eyed Peas
- "Magic" - B.o.B
- "Kings and Queens" - 30 Seconds to Mars
- "Just the way you are" - Bruno Mars
