The Man

Species: Lycanthrope - Blackmane

Height: 6' 11"

Gender: Male

Weight: 260lbs

Eyes: Amber

Profession: Mechanic

At a Glance:

Left arm has a winding thorn-vine tattoo.Amber eyes, generally a vaguely savage air.Maybe the Big Bad Wolf, or maybe he's just got an ego...

Milo is a brute in every sense, so tall and enormously built that he could be mistaken for some giant. His body balanced between the razor hone of meticulous workout and the crude brutality of pure physical labor. Every muscle is huge and blunt and solid, seeming soft and disguising much of his strength till he moves and pythons coil beneath his tanned hide in place of muscle—Pectorals like granite slabs, biceps like rumbling boulders, legs like iron-hard trunks of ancient trees, his abdomen an impenetrable mass of only slightly defined iron.

Milo is not a pretty man, but he is attractive in an animal, brutal kind of way. His grace is not pretty either, but the pointed dangerous elegance of a predator. Every step is sure and strong, every movement dripping his confidence. His face is rough-hewn too, but that doesn't mean he's not still handsome, his rough beard and hard features countered by an expressive mouth almost perpetually holding a crooked, charming grin. And while those animal features never vanish, they are not an inelegant melding. His eyes echo that same impudent, cocky mischief—and an oddity: his irises a burnished amber, and faintly lit from behind, like the embers of a distant inferno. His hair? Rather curly, less coarse than the pelt over his body and trimmed short, black like vein of coal. His beard is trimmed likewise, maybe the biggest admittance to vanity.


Many necklaces are slung casually around his neck, some holding power, some souvenirs and nick-nacks to be replaced or given away as the mood dictates. Clothes seem just as casually slung about him as if they are never really worn by him, never hide the animal beneath. But still, clothes are important when they are worn; normally jeans, beaten but tough enough to handle his size and strength, boots for when shoes are a necessity, a flannel shirt slung on for when decency is demanded. Despite that, he can tidy up well... Just never expect him to stay that way. Class is something he has learned, but never absorbed.

The Details.

WIP!

The Beast.

Lycanthropy: The Blackmane

The distant progeny of man and a atavistic spirit of predatory hunger, the Blackmane exist to hunt in every conceptual and literal way they can find. Amoral and passionate and potent, a Blackmane can be a thrilling companion or a terrifying monster, often at the same time. The Blackmane have many of the famous powers of popular culture lycanthropy, but their soul-swollen bodies and dual bodies allows them some unique advantages. The average Blackmane is a terror; Milo, a master of Twinned Fang? An army.

The Beast Within

Milo’s beastly self exists unseen around him. He can change fully into the Beast, or blend their forms together to be stronger. Milo is practiced in Twinned Fang, a combat style that takes advantage of his two bodies, allowing him to maneuver and strike through the momentary manifestation and transformation between forms.

◆ Swaps between two bodies.
◆ Partial manifestation of other body.
◆ Blended manifestation.
◆ Silver Vulnerability.

Twinned Fang

A martial art unique to the Blackmane, utilizing their twinned bodies, blurring between them to strike from multiple angles, to sense even in their blindspots, and to glitch momentum itself to amplify the power of their blows. The ancient Warrior-Monks of Twinned Fang were known for destroying fortifications with a finger.

◆ Rapid movement through dual-body manipulation
◆ Projectile Deflection
◆ Transcendent sensory capability
◆ Explosive attacks.

The Terror

Sometimes you can see it, the form of the beast lurking in the shadows behind the man. This power is the psychic shock of the predator made manifest. More than just simple fear, the lashing out of the Beast's soul can cause the very Mist obscuring reality from the mundane human's to recoil away. The psychic energies of those around Milo are perceptible, allowing him to literally smell fear.

◆ Projects aura of terror.
◆ Allows detection of emotion via scent.
◆ Enhanced beast senses.
◆ Leaves Milo vulnerable to sensory overload.

There's more to a man than the myth he embodies, however. Milo has his own lifetime of skills and abilities to draw upon, be it esoteric or simply working skillsets he developed.

Handy Mechanic

Milo has worked on and off as a mechanic since he was a teenager, and it's one of his main sources of income. Thanks to his mythic knowledge and unclear magical skill, he knows ways to essentially lie an engine into purring along again.

◆ Good with cars.
◆ Miraculous if fragile repair.
◆ Known in the business.
◆ Slow Perfectionist.

Makeshift Enchantment

Milo can enchant the necklaces he wears with a variety of protective or utility spells. It also lets him grant some protection to others.

◆Short lasting Protective charms.
◆ 'Botched' charm grenade.
◆ Senses Magic?
◆ Risk of malfunction.

The Blackmane.

"... One of less common strains of the Lycanthropic affliction, the Blackmane are named for the distinctive trail of fur that sprouts down the back of of the creature whenever it transforms, always black in color. The Blackmanes retain rationality during the full moon, and this has allowed greater bleed and infestation within virtuous society. Blackmanes do not have the decency to die naturally, and due to the rigors of their in-fighting those who live are of particular physical, mental or occult prowess. Of particular note is the well-mapped lineage of the Blackmane, which can be traced back to only four ancestors who were already by that point powerful and ancient. It is for this reason that the Blackmane have four distinct eye colors, one from each ancestor, their traits now mingled together. It is not known how many ancestors survive at the time of this writing, but if they did, truly they must be as abominations..."
The Compendium of Things and the Ungodly

"The prevailing theory for the origin of this breed is the dilution of a mating between man and one of those powerful, strange entities from the world of Spirit. Certainly, the Blackmane are at least partially Spirit in nature-- Their flesh is charged with the energies of that world, so much so that even slivers of flesh can remain without decay and capable of grafting for days. Their life cycle, oft interrupted by the violent life of such predators, revolves around a spiritual maturation-- rather than growing old, the Blackmane's spiritual aspect grows in power, until it becomes dominant over their physical physiology. Where their transformed state as an avatar of their true spiritual self used to be secondary, it is now their only form: a huge, dangerous and terrifying predator. Fortunately, such beings wander into forests and woods, and through some means depart for their true homes in the Wilds of the spirits."
The Book of Spirit

◆ The Blackmane strain is an old one, all known extant packs traced back from around four different, now mostly non-transmissive individuals.

◆ This strain of Werewolf is characterized by the Beasthood-- their term for their second body, which takes the form of a wolf-resembling beast. When one body is physically present, the other is rotated into an enclosed space between the physical and spiritual worlds. Despite having two bodies, the Blackmane is one individual. The Beast body, being spirit, does not require physical sustenance while not manifested most of the time. The power of the full moon however causes the spirit to become real enough to require food, resulting in a massive caloric strain that contributes in part to their more violent dispositions.

◆ Blackmane experience an insatiable hunger for hunting and predation. While this is is most easily sated through devouring humans, most blackmane instead practice physical and emotional domination-- often through sexual intercourse.

◆ While the Beasthood is not an independent entity, the mind of a blackmane is not fully human-- it has been seeded with the impulses of a spiritual, amoral predator. This means infection can massively alter the disposition of a person. For more 'moral' blackmane, this means that they avoid infecting people who are not already much like a beast, because turning them would be the death of their current personality.

◆ Blackmane eyes can be Red, Gold, Blue or Green. Age pollutes the colors. Red cools to purple, yellow stains to amber, blue and green both fade to the same flinty inbetween color. Eye Color does not denote hierarchy or personality and is mostly random inheritance.

◆ Silver worked with intent to weaponize sears. Silver charms are common for dampening their own emotional urges.

◆ Blackmane blood has a potent regenerative property. This is shared to a lesser extent by their saliva and a much greater extent with their sexual fluids. Their blood is a popular alchemic ingredient and medical drug. The blood and sexual fluids of Blackmane do not cool, instead remaining as hot and fluid until it is polluted or dirtied enough to render it mundane. This causes it to lose it's magical properties, however.

◆ With effort and usually age, a Blackmane can learn to manipulate both bodies simultaneously, and to selectively materialize parts of the currently stowed body for split second moments. Combining these skills allows one to practice the art of Twinned Fangs, a style where a blackmane uses both bodies simultaneously to fight. The ability to control two different bodies with such skill is not common, but Twinned Fang allows the explotation of the nature of their bodies to expontentially amplify the force of blows, maneuver in novel ways and utterly bewilder any opponent.

◆ This strain of werewolf is close enough to the classic wolfman horror trope to be rather stigmatized in some circles, and actively hunted in others.