Xander Whitemoore (Blood Shadow)

Basic Information
Name: Alexander Whitemoore; he prefers to be called Xander.

Gender: Male.

Age: 18.

Element: Prophracia (Light).

Demonic Pact (Dark)
Xander has formed a pact with the demoness Darcia Shade. This pact gives him the following benefits:
 * He is able to use Dark, and one auxiliary element, with about the same proficiency as Darcia. The auxiliary element must be the same as one of Darcia's three auxiliary elements; see her profile for more details. The auxiliary element can be changed at will with a moment of concentration. After changing the auxiliary element, Xander immediately loses control over any magical constructs he created while using the previous auxiliary element. For example, he creates a simple stone golem while Earth is his auxiliary element. But if he changes his auxiliary element to Electric, he will immediately lose the ability to control the stone golem he just created; the golem itself will continue to hold its shape but will otherwise be inactive.
 * He is able to conjure the demonic sword Nyxian. See his Starting Weapons section for more details.
 * He is magically linked with Darcia. This link works via some sort of hyperspace, and can thus be maintained over extremely long distances. If the distance is significantly longer than the planet's diameter, the link will start to become tenuous, though such a scenario will likely never occur in-game. Through this link, Xander can mentally communicate with Darcia, teleport to her at will, and draw upon a portion of her magical power and energy reserves. A mental struggle will ensue if he tries to do any of those things against her will, with failing the struggle meaning failure to do said thing.
 * Darcia can transform into dark energy and possess Xander. This will cause Xander's hair to turn jet black, and his eyes blood red, and he will be able to manifest Darcia's demonic wings, horns, claws, and prehensile tail; see her profile for more details. In this state, Xander and Darcia's thoughts are synchronized, giving them the mental capability of two highly intelligent people; Xander can also draw upon a greater portion of Darcia's power than normally possible. Obviously, this possession requires phenomenal cooperation from both parties, and cannot be done if one of them is unwilling.

Precognition (Prophracia)
All Prophracia mages occasionally have visions of the future. Xander has honed this ability enough so that he is able to, at will, see a few seconds into the future, allowing him to predict an opponent's moves and react accordingly. This requires no small amounts of focus, and thus can't be easily used if Xander is in a state of great mental distress. The future is also in a state of flux and uncertainty, so in a highly chaotic situation, e.g. one involving multiple opponents, Xander's precognitive visions may be more muddled, and more focus is required to see them with clarity.

Psionic Armor (Psychic, Light)
Xander is able to cover himself with a set of full-body solid white armor made out of telekinetic force fields infused with Light magic. This armor is extremely tough, capable of withstanding most physical and magical assaults, and its Light magic negates almost all attempts to magically bypass, phase through, or otherwise ignore the armor; the armor also rapidly repairs itself from damage. The armor filters out harmful substances in the air to let clean air through, but is otherwise airtight. Xander has trained himself to the point where his body reflexively manifests the psionic armor if struck by an attack that would otherwise injure him. But remember that while this armor is extremely hard to break, it does require energy to maintain and repair itself if attacked. If an opponent manages to wear down the armor through a battle of attrition, Xander will usually be too exhausted to defend himself after the armor is gone.

Psionic Blade (Psychic, Light)
This is a plain longsword of solid white energy made in a fashion similar to the Psionic Armor. It is extremely tough, sharp, and can selectively burn enemies with searing holy energy on Xander's command. Due to its nature, Xander can remotely control it via telekinesis, though he can wield it with greater skill if he holds it in his hand. Like the Psionic Armor, the Psionic Blade repairs itself from damage, but this costs energy. Being far stronger than anything the Order would give to a mere rank 4 Paladin, Xander used to wield this blade in lieu of the standard rank 4 Paladin sword, but now he rarely uses it anymore after acquiring the superior Nyxian sword from his Demonic Pact.

Seal (Light)
This is a spell known by any and all Paladins who possess the minimum degree of skill with Light magic needed to join the OotP. The spell fires a homing bolt of white energy that, upon striking a target, reduces the target’s magical power by an amount roughly equivalent to the energy put into the spell. The limitations of this spell are detailed in this post.

Heal (Light)
A beam of white light that heals a target by an amount proportional to the energy put in it. With enough energy, entire lost limbs can be regrown, though this is difficult and requires some anatomical knowledge. This works on living beings, obviously, and Xander has taken the extra thought of making it work on dead things also. It still has little effect on inorganic beings though.

Cure (Light)
A soft white glow that purges toxins, diseases, harmful magic, and other negative status effects from the target. Very powerful magical debuffs will take more energy to remove. If the input energy is not enough, the magnitude of the debuff will only be reduced instead.

Invigoration (Light)
Xander can infuse his own body with copious amounts of Light magic to greatly enhance his physical capabilities, including but not limited to strength, reflexes, speed, and stamina. The Heal and Cure spells are also applied automatically to his body when needed, giving him regeneration and great resistance to debuffs. This spell is able to sustain Xander even if he goes without air, water, food, sleep, or most other human necessities, until his energy runs out.

Stream (Psychic)
This spell surrounds Xander's body, greatly enhancing his speed via telekinesis and adding additional force to his physical attacks. It also allows him to levitate and fly with almost no effort.

Teleportation (Psychic)
By manipulating the fabric of space via Psychic magic, Xander can teleport to any location within the range of his telepathy. The teleportation is mainly limited to himself and the items directly in contact with him, typically his clothes. This cannot be spammed without rapidly tiring Xander out; he usually does at most one teleportation per 30 seconds. Additional limitations on teleportation can be found here.

Clearmind (Psychic + Light combination)
This combination element is an invisible energy that, once applied to a target, gives the target greatly enhanced mental clarity and resistance to mind-affecting magic. In large doses, this can give the target a bullet-time effect by speeding up his or her thoughts and perceptions, allowing the target to see the world in slow-motion, though this may give the target mental fatigue if used excessively.

Judgment (Psychic, Light)
A beam of telekinetic force infused with Light magic, dealing piercing damage combined with searing holy energy. This spell can be changed to a wave for slashing damage, and a ball for blunt damage. Damage is proportional to the energy put into the spell, obviously.

White Ruin (Psychic, Light)
A wide wave of blazing white energy that attempts to shred everything it engulfs while inflicting massive holy burns, though obviously there are things strong enough to stand up to it relatively unharmed. A very powerful attack, this spell costs a lot of energy to use. Xander created this spell because he thought it would be grimly appropriate for his family name.

Nyxian
This elegant longsword appears to be made from a single piece of smooth black metal, with a slightly curved blade, and a hilt guard shaped like a bat's wing; the metal itself seems to absorb most of the light that shines upon it. Six gems are inlaid along the blade's length, and a larger gem set into its hilt, each gem red as blood yet containing within it every color of the rainbow. This is a blade of solidified energy, created from Darcia's magic, symbolizing the pact between Xander and the demoness. Aside from being incredibly sharp, tough, and regenerative, Nyxian is able to channel Dark and an auxiliary element, the same as the current auxiliary element of Xander's Demonic Pact; the iridescence of the sword's gems changes with the auxiliary element the sword assumes. When charged with energy, a number of intricate glowing runes appear on the sword, the colors and shapes of which correspond to the sword's current auxiliary element as well. The sword can also change its shape, transforming into any melee weapon Xander can imagine, though he prefers to keep it a sword due to his proficiency with swords. This sword is magically linked to Xander through the Demonic Pact, much like Darcia herself is, meaning that Xander can remotely manipulate it and teleport it to him at will. He can also conjure and dismiss the sword at will, though the sword can only be conjured from a spot in physical contact with him, such as one of his hands; he cannot simply make the sword pop into existence at a remote location, like the inside of an enemy's skull.

Pistol
Xander also carries a pistol for emergency situations.

Description
Xander is a young man of Caucasian appearance, with fair but lightly tanned skin. He is 175 cm tall, with a fit, athletic, but not overly muscular build. He has short, messy dark blond hair, gray-green eyes, and a reasonably handsome face.

Xander is a rather quiet and introverted individual, who prefers to be alone or with a small number of good friends rather than interacting with a large number of people; he is somewhat socially awkward as a result. He is also somewhat morally conflicted. On one hand, he usually does not hesitate to help someone in need, though he is likely to leave quietly afterwards without waiting to hear the person's gratitude. On the other hand, he is rather brutal and spiteful to those he considers enemies, showing little mercy or restraint, especially in combat. Though he feels that it is usually wrong, Xander often cannot help but to be opportunistic and take advantages of situations, even though he's likely to hate himself afterwards. He is unsure if his own moral principles arise from truly himself, or simply from him conforming to societal norms and expectations for his own benefit. He is highly intelligent and analytical, but this, together with his great talent and power, occasionally leads to arrogance and overestimation of his own capabilities. He also does not function very well under extreme pressure, and is prone to make not very well thought out decisions. Lastly, he's not able to accept losses easily, which is the primary cause of his current situation; see his bio for more details.

Also, Xander does not like being called "Alex". If you do so on purpose, he will pointedly ignore you. Reasons can be found in his bio.

Clothes
Xander does not have much of a fashion sense, and thus often dresses in whatever is comfortable without much concern for appearances. He currently wears a white T-shirt, gray jacket, blue jeans, and white sneakers, all covered by a simple white cloak. All of his clothes are enchanted to be more flexible than usual to allow ease of movement in combat.

Bio
Having been abandoned by his biological parents as an infant, Xander spent his early childhood in an orphanage in the city of Lis. His Psychic magic manifested by itself when he was nothing but a toddler, and he was able to teach himself some Light magic just by watching the local Paladins, even at that young age; his immense magical aptitude was apparent by then. Because of his significantly greater power compared to the other orphans around him, Xander was treated as a freak and shunned, which resulted in him developing his introverted personality. He knew it was wrong to abuse his power, but he still couldn't stop himself from using his magic to beat them into submission when other children tried to bully him. To "make up" for such power abuse, he would also try to use magic to help the other children in various things, but with limited success as they felt scared more than anything else. He also knew that abusing his power like that, even if it's against bullies, was likely to earn him flak from the orphanage's caretakers, he learned to be opportunistic and exploit situations to push the blame onto the bullies whenever possible; it was wrong but he had to do it.

When Xander was 8, the orphanage was visited by Brandon Whitemoore, head of one of the wealthiest families in Lis; he went there to donate some money and brought along his 8-year-old daughter Lucia. The moment Xander saw her, he thought that Lucia was extremely pretty. Lucia, her appearance and demeanor frail, became the target of ridicule and harassment from several particularly mean-spirited children, and they even threw stones at her when she asked them to stop. Xander stepped in, subduing the bullies easily with his magic. Such an act was seen by Brandon, and he became even more impressed when it was revealed that all of Xander's magic was self-taught. Not willing to let such talent go to waste, Brandon decided to adopt Xander.

As Xander joined the Whitemoore household, he naturally began spending a lot of time together with Lucia. Lucia suffered from a crippling genetic disorder, but that didn't stop her from being the sweetest, kindest person Xander knew. A crush quickly developed. His new life at House Whitemoore compared with his previous lonely existence at the orphanage was like the difference between heaven and earth, so he decided to reject his old nickname, "Alex", used mainly by the bullies, in favor of the new "Xander", which Lucia thought sounded cooler.

Due to his immense aptitude for magic, Xander's adoptive parents thought his talents could be fully developed if he joined the Order of the Paladins. After several rejections due to his young age, Xander was accepted into the Order's ranks part time at the age of 14 despite the minimum age requirement; they were simply too impressed with his skills relative to his age. Not failing to impress further, Xander reached rank 4 in less than a year.

Xander never advanced anywhere beyond rank 4, for one simple reason: the Vow of Chastity. His affections for Lucia only grew stronger over the years, and it was not a completely pure love either. He loved her deeply, but lusted after her body as well; he simply could not let the Vow of Chastity get between him and Lucia. But he continued to teach himself. At 18 years old, his power and skills in magic and combat were already a match for any rank 9 Paladin.

One night, while alone and off-duty, Xander stumbled upon a surge of unusual energy he felt inside an abandoned building. Alarmed, he scanned the building via telepathy, to quickly discover a mage in the beginning of a demon-summoning ritual. Right then and there, Xander was struck by a Prophracic vision of him somehow desperately needing this knowledge for some reason or other in the near future. Being the opportunist he was, Xander chose to allow the mage to complete the ritual, rather than to apprehend the mage immediately, as the amount of energies gathered couldn't have been able to summon anything more than a rank 1 demon. As the mage performed the ritual, Xander burned the process into his memories. Only after the summoning was complete did Xander enter the building, and defeat both the demon and the mage without too much difficulty; all else proceeded as usual.

At this point, Lucia was only kept alive and healthy by heavy amounts of Light magic infused into her body; the genetic disease could not be cured without massively damaging and possibly curing her body. Normally this would not ever be a problem and she'd be able to live a good long life. But one day Xander received a vision of Lucia in extreme danger. Rushing to her aid, he wasn't there in time to prevent a powerful mage from kidnapping her to use as leverage against House Whitemoore. In the heated battle that ensued, a stray curse thrown by the mage struck Lucia, not only gravely wounding her, but disrupting almost all of the spells that kept her genetic illness at bay. Though he won the battle, Xander was not able to save Lucia.

Xander was almost driven mad by grief, and simply could not accept Lucia's loss. Knowing that Lucia's body would be cremated in a few days, he became desperate. Resurrection was thought to be impossible by most, and no one Xander knew even wanted to try; he became so desperate that he was willing to summon a demon to resurrect Lucia for him. So he stole Lucia's body before it could be cremated, went to a remote cave in the wilderness, and attempted the demon-summoning ritual.

The demon Xander managed to summon, Darcia Shade, possessed Lucia's body the moment she appeared in the human world, bringing the body fully back to life; it was made healthier than it ever was and even the genetic disease was purged fully. Before he could drive her out of Lucia's body, Darcia offered Xander a deal. He would help her achieve a certain goal, and then she would bring Lucia's soul back and reattach it to the body. Unable to let go of the opportunity, and unable to resist the demoness's temptations as she assumed the form of his most beloved, Xander agreed, forming his Demonic Pact with Darcia.

Xander knew that he would be punished heavily, possibly even executed, by the Paladins for summoning a demon. Darcia's goal also required him to travel to the city of Imperis. So he obliged, leaving Lis, his adoptive family, and his fellow Paladins without another word.

And now, Xander has just arrived at Imperis. Her goal is perfectly well-intentioned, Darcia assures; it only involves the destruction of an ancient evil cult known as the Cult of Phaeus. Not that he believes her... But not like he has a choice.