ShadowPard
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
| [[Image:|300px|]] | |
| ShadowPard | |
| Player: @Night.Fyre | |
| Origin: | Magic |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Dominator |
| Security Level: | 50+++ |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Khai Sheppard |
| Known Aliases: | ' |
| Species: | Human |
| Age: | 27 |
| Height: | 6' 6" |
| Weight: | 220 lbs |
| Eye Color: | Amber |
| Hair Color: | Black |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | Rogue Isles (Native) |
| Occupation: | Professional Thief |
| Place of Birth: | Port Oakes, Rogue Isles |
| Base of Operations: | Port Oakes, Cap Au Diable |
| Marital Status: | Single |
| Known Relatives: | None Known |
| Known Powers | |
| Shadow Sorcery | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Shapeshifting: Werepanther | |
| Equipment | |
| ' | |
| ' | |
Contents |
Description
ShadowPard is a Mage/Sorcerer who specializes in Darkness, or as he says, Shadow Magic. He is somewhat infamous in the Étoile Isles as a professional thief. His real name is Khai Sheppard, but only Arachnos and people who he has told know that.
Quotes & Rumors
Have you met ShadowPard/Khai in game? Done missions with him? Feel free to add something. Please don’t be offensive, and I reserve the right to remove anything I object to.
- ShadowPard was recently publicly targeted by the Praetorian Wu Yin and Tub Ci, placing a bounty on his head. Khai made a public spectacle of the beatdowns he gave the Carnival of Shadows and the Marcone Family when they attempted to collect on the bounty, before he went after Yin and Tub Ci directly, giving Tub Ci his own beatdown and making Wu Yin flee. The bounty has not been rescinded, but no one else has shown inclination to try again.
- ShadowPard is a well-known professional thief in the Etoile Isles. He mostly keeps his activities confined to his homeland, but for the right price he will steal just about anything, anywhere. He has even traveled to other dimensions for some commissions.
- Khai refers to the cat demon as “mon chat” (my cat) and it has to feed on life force to sustain itself. He tries to keep it sated by letting it feed on rivals and opposing forces, and has allowed it to rampage through a few Arachnos bases, Family operations, or Council/Fifth Column bases. He rarely lets it feed to the point of killing, but will let it do so if he feels the target deserves it.
Appearance and First Impressions
Khai Sheppard, aka ShadowPard, is a tall, athletic man, and if anyone were to ask, he would tell them that his hair was once a lovely shade of auburn, and his eyes blue. But now he has hair black as midnight, and his faintly almond-shaped eyes are amber colored. Darkness swirls and twists under his skin, appearing almost like tattoos that cover his arms, chest. He often wears no shirt or sleeveless shirts or vests so the “tattoos” are usually easily visible. And yes, it is all over, although for some reason it only shows on half of his face. When he is using his magic, the darkness will seep out of his skin, sending wisps and twists of shadow that are centered around his hands and eyes.
If he shapeshifts to his hybrid werecat form, he gains approximately a foot in height, and easily 100 lbs of weight. The hybrid form has nearly black fur, with faintly darker leopard spots, and he grows sabertooth-like fangs, making him unable to speak intelligibly. While in this shape, the darkness inside him constantly manifests as faint writhing wisps exuded from his body.
Khai can also change into a black panther shape that is obviously supernatural, with glowing yellow eyes.
Personality and Personal Details
Khai is somewhat reserved, although will readily engage in conversation. He is generally friendly and pleasant to anyone who speaks to him, unless you have done something to anger him. As he grows angry, the ‘tattoos’ will begin to writhe and twist more animatedly. Typically, he remains in control, but if he grows too angry it is possible that he could lose control of the cat and it will take over, automatically changing into the Hybrid shape.
Natively born of the Etoile Isles, Khai is of mixed heritage: his mother of the original Etoilean/French descent, and his father was an immigrant Half-Vietnamese American who worked for Arachnos. He is bilingual, speaking French and English fluently, and does have a tendency to mix both when talking. When he speaks there is just a touch of an accent, but more noticeable is a strange, supernatural quality to his voice. Some describe it as an echo, others say it is more like a rough undercurrent that slightly distorts the sound of his voice. What is apparent is that no two people seem to hear it the same way.
When engaged in a job, or publicly appearing, he will usually appear in his Hybrid form, and so many people do not recognize him as ShadowPard in his human shape. When meeting with potential clients he will, of course, be in human shape to negotiate.
Background and History
Disclaimer: Full Background information is provided largely for entertainment. Much of ShadowPard’s background is not publicly known, although Arachnos may have extensive records on him. If your character has no reason to know his background, such as access to “classified” Arachnos/Longbow records, you will need to learn it from him in game.
Before the Darkness
Khai Sheppard was born in Port Oakes, to an Etoilean mother, Jeanne Beauchene, and an Arachnos grunt from America, Kevin Sheppard. They never married, but they saw each other for as long as he was stationed in Port Oakes, and Kevin seemed to genuinely like Khai. When Khai was 7 years old, his father was transferred to another base somewhere back in America. Neither Khai or his mother ever heard from him again, and Khai assumes he was a casualty of some Arachnos operation never publicly acknowledged.
Growing up, Khai knew he was different from most other kids, as he knew from early on that he was attracted to men. He mentioned this to his mother Jeanne when he was around 14, and she warned him that he should keep it private, and may want to consider looking into some method to protect himself or to leave the Etoile Isles due to the poor history of the government in protecting individuals. Even Arachnos employees weren’t particularly safe, due to the Arachnos philosophy of whoever had strength enough to assert themselves, would have rights over anyone who couldn’t protect themselves. Weak Arachnos employees usually ended up dead, and Arachnos would only mildly care about any inconvenience caused to the organization.
Jeanne taught him a few minor protection spells that had been handed down in her family, but she had no particular talent for magic herself. Khai didn’t seem to have a significant talent himself, but he seemed more adept at casting the spells as there was always a visible effect when he cast them, whereas when she cast the spells, she felt something, but nothing visibly happened. Since he appeared to have more talent than she did, she encouraged him to pursue more advanced magics to better protect himself, since she was concerned that if his homsexuality was found out, it might be used as an excuse to test or prove him weak by attacking him. She also encouraged him to learn some self-defense or fighting ability as well.
Khai searched for every scrap of information he could find on magic in the schools he attended, as well as searching online on the web, and tracking down sources locally. The Etoile Isles did have a public school system, but it was pretty meager in what information he could find, as many teachers didn’t really care about actually teaching students. There was more information available at Dr. Aeon’s University, but that information was not free. Also, there were multiple individuals that had private collections with spellbooks and such, but most were disinclined to share with others. Khai soon learned if he wanted more information on magic or other spells, he would have to ‘‘take’’ it for himself.
Since he was just a kid, and not especially robust for his age, that required stealing it. Fortunately, one of the spells his mother had taught him was a stealth spell, allowing him to be nearly silent and unnoticeable when active. Thus started his career as a thief, at the grand age of 16. He knew he would need to be extremely cautious about who he stole from, as there were many people who had far greater power than he, and would be able to easily detect a neophyte self-taught mage trying to sneak into their sanctums. But he practiced his spell work incessantly, and since a strong body helped with a strong will and mind, worked out and exercised whenever he could, in addition to the meditative exercises he found for increasing his magical strength.
His initial forays into the world of “crime” (there was a reason his homeland was often called the Rogue Isles, after all) were against non-magically proficient shops and people who could afford to lose money or property. Just because he had to steal to get what he wanted, didn’t mean he had to hurt people or their livelihood. Stealth spells worked well against normal people and completely mundane security systems, and he was pleased with his success.
Although his mother didn’t completely approve of him stealing, she admitted his reasoning was sound, although she encouraged him to find alternate methods of achieving his goal. She made sure he knew that she did not think it necessary to be unnecessarily violent or destructive, however, and told him if she ever found out he was hurting people just because he could, she would disown him. He promised her that he would never start fights, only finish them or avoid the people who were inclined that way.
He spent a few years this way, slowly but surely increasing his skill and power through practice and tracking down any hints or rumors of magical items or artifacts, and incidentally increasing his and his mother’s financial situation. He made sure to keep the best protections he could find on their home, and made sure to leave no traces that could be traced back to his mother or himself.
In the end, despite all the precautions she and he took, what took his mother from him was a random showdown between the Marcones and the Mooks that caught his mother in the crossfire while on her way home from her job. He witnessed her being cut down because he had gone to meet her, as he was intending to take her out to dinner that night. Unfortunately, the little healing magic he knew was not enough to save her.
Powers and Abilities
Arachnos has determined ShadowPard’s abilities place him in the class of supers known as Dominators, but he is a full-fledged Mage, or Sorcerer, who uses Darkness or Shadow Magic. He manipulates and controls the magical essence of darkness to control, manipulate, or imprison his foes. He can also attack them directly, inflicting damage using the shadows to attack their life essence directly, or drain it. He can also use this magic to carry him into the air, allowing him to fly, or bolster his body, making him highly resistant to harm for a short time.
He also has the ability to change into a hybrid man/saber-toothed leopard shape that is truly fearsome to behold, and quite savage and deadly with his razor sharp claws. When in this shape, he cannot cast many spells due to his inability to articulate the necessary arcane words, but his enhanced strength and resistance to harm more than makes up for it. He can also transform into a black panther shape that he usually uses to travel quickly.
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