Ven Versonii

↟ Vampirism
When Ven first arrived on Earth, he did not carry with him the vampiric traits he does today. They came about slowly. At first he only donated his own life force to others-- to the dying to save them, to those who walked the night in order to protect them from the sun...

But eventually curiosity caught hold of him, or perhaps it was simply inevitable, being surrounded by so many vampires. When he partook in another's blood himself, he found it gave him an unexpected boost of power, particularly when that individual was one connected to him. Eventually want became need, though, and now Ven grows weak if he goes too long without feeding from either lifeforce or blood. It probably didn't help his cause that he was deeply connected to fire, and fire, though it can create, also devours.

As Ven is a being shaped by belief, this habit also eventually changed him in other ways. His skin grew to a pale tawny rather than the toasty olive it had been, and he gained long fangs, an affinity with shadow, not just sun.

His presence and bite became hypnotic, and he found that through the vampires within his ranks specifically, he regained a little of his old strength back, whenever he was around them.

Ven can feed ambiently from emotional energy, but it isn't very nourishing. Blood is better, but it must be live and taken directly from the source. He can also feed directly from energy points via touch, but it tends to be a far more intimate process.

↟ Something Else
Though Ven takes on many vampiric traits, he is not a vampire in the true sense of the word, nor was he ever human, or any other creature that has ever been born into his current universe. He is a creature from a dead universe, a survivor of a strange reality that would be difficult for human eyes and human minds to truly understand.

Ven's true power is hobbled by the conscious choice he and the other Tesseracts made to seal their true bodies away in order to protect life from unintentional abuse of that power. But piece of Ven that he sent out into the world, his avatar, so to speak, still operates on a much higher vibrational frequency than much of this reality. In essence, he is like a three dimensional person living in a crayon drawing world.

Outside of his own seats of power, he cannot directly bend reality without working through tools, such as his temples or his followers. The extent of that influence depends entirely on who else is already influencing it, and how much of his own power he has already poured into it.

He could, for example, see through the eyes and hear through the ears of any of his followers, or any individual who has recently partaken of his blood for as long as that blood is in their system. But he would need a particularly devout acolyte and the active presence of his element to use as an anchor in order to do something like fire step to them.

Fire and heat, summer and passion, smoke and blood-- these all fall within his elemental realms, and each can be used by him to strengthen his power reserves and work 'miracles'.

Ven has much greater control over his own body, though. He does not need to eat, breathe, or sleep, though he often enjoys doing so anyway, and he is capable of shapeshifting at will (though there are usually giveaways in things like coloration) without spending much energy to do so.

Ven's senses are frighteningly keen, and he is immensely strong and fast, and can push about 15 tons/30,000lbs with a bit of exertion, run at 80mph in quick bursts, and does not easily tire, though he is not limitless in any of these aspects, and he will eventually need to rest like anyone else. He is also still beholden to gravity and physics, and just because he can lift something, does not always mean that it is easy to, especially when it's physically larger than him.

He can take a lot more damage than a human being can, though not as much as you would think. His skin is not any tougher, and he can still be shot or stabbed, but it takes him a lot longer to bleed out and shut down. He cannot technically be killed, however, only forced into hibernation until blood or energy heals him.

In his own personal realm, which in reality is simply where his true body is kept, however, the gloves are off. The land and the sky and the buildings upon it all bend to his will in this place, because, though it is well disguised, they are all him. Try not to think about where those luscious veggies you're eating came from.

↟ Blood & Fire
Ven draws strength from his elements and his acolytes. His strength is quite literally his community. Where they suffer, so does he. When they are diminished and he is alone, he often finds himself just as powerless as any man. The powers mentioned so far are him at the apex of his strength, and he cannot always reach them.

Sometimes though, he can work truly frightening feats.

It all depends on who and what is around him. Ven can also pass along a shadow of this strength to those he personally has turned, the Drakon-Ka, as an echo of him resides in them forever more.

A more temporary version of this occurs when he allows others to drink his blood. The effects are most prominent in vampires, who he has a strong connection to. Ven's blood allows them to once more walk in the sun for as long as his blood is in their system, but it also gives them a considerable power boost to their own inherent abilities for a time.

This boost can also be experienced by non-vampires, but it tends to come with side effects. An individual may find themselves feeling a distinctly predatory flare in their own personality traits for a while, which is more prominent if they were already prone to it.

↡ Alone & Cold
Just as Ven's elemental and interpersonal connections strengthen him, the opposite is true when it comes to isolation and his opposing elements.

Ven cannot tolerate the cold. He loathes cold climates, so if you catch him there, you can be assured that he's up to something that has truly draw his interest. During winter he is withdrawn and weakened, and spends most of his time curled up by the fire napping when he has a choice.

His preference, usually, is not to be there at all. When one of his strongholds experiences winter, he usually mirgates for the season until the thaw.

Similarly, any magic based in winter or cold can severely effect him.

The more those he has a deep connection to are physically around him, the stronger he is. The opposite also holds true. When Ven is completely alone he often finds himself considerably diminished in power.

↡ The Fetters of Power
The people around Ven see him as a vampire, and some as a god. As a being of pure energy beneath it all, he is molded by these beliefs. Others cannot change Ven's personality, but these beliefs can influence his abilities and his weaknesses.

With the territory of vampirism comes his constant need to feed upon either blood or life energy. Every three of four days, or more if Ven has been exerting himself, Ven needs this grim nourishment. If he does not feed, he becomes very grouchy, and eventually weakens. Too long without feeding and he falls into a state of hibernation until what he needs finds him again.

Ven cannot feed upon dead blood. It won't hurt him, but blood packs or blood from corpses does nothing for him. It's the lifeforce carried on the blood and the accompanying emotional resonance that sustains him.

Similarly, because others have long seen Ven as a god, he must now follow thier rules and mind the territories of other dieties. Strong beliefs of an individual in holy symbols can keep him at bay-- not because Ven is evil, but because those symbols mark that individual as that diety's territory.

This can be nullified if a member of that religion with enough authority (such as a priest) gives him permission to access that place or individual, or if the diety themselves allow it. The former only works if that person is a true believer in their faith, however.

This happens on a smaller scale with personal dwellings. In order to enter into someone's house, Ven must ask permission from someone who lives there. House spirits, though quieter than gods, are surprisingly powerful individuals. Once he's in, however, he's much more difficult to remove again-- though not impossible.

This does not work for Ven's acolytes, as their homes are now also technically his home.

↡ Bound to the Body
Ven's true self is locked away in a pocket dimension somewhere. The individual that people most see is a small extension of himself, an avatar of sorts, and living in the physical world, it has physical vulnerabilities.

It takes a bit more to put Ven down than most individuals. He can keep moving with injuries that would be fatal for anyone else, but eventually he will bleed out. His skin is only human tough, so he can still be shot or stabbed or bruised-- though he cannot be poisoned or become intoxicated unless he wishes to be.

Frostbite in particular is something that will linger quite a while with him, as it is damage that was caused by the element in opposition to his.

Injuries caused by other Tesseracts can cause more lasting damage, as their strikes can directly harm Ven's true self-- but none of the Tesseracts are capable of true death, just extended hibernation or lingering injury.

↡ Scales & Feathers
A somewhat niche vulnerability, but truly powerful if one can manage to get ahold of one-- Ven can be bound in many ways with his scales or feathers.

These are not the down plucked from his bird shape or the skin of his snake form, but material taken from his true body. Obviously, this is not something that is just left laying around, but a token that is purposefully given by Ven to someone for varying reasons. But gifts can be lost, stolen, bartered for...

At the least, a feather or a scale can be used to hold Ven to a single space, but to those who are truly experienced in magic, it could be concievably be used to bend Ven to their will for a time... At least until the magic in the feather or the scale is used up, or it is destroyed.

In which case, they may find themselves with regrets once Ven is free.

Rainy day things, favorites, and little misc. facts.


Any questions pertaining to Ven's skills or powers. For those pertaining to the Suntouched or the Drakor-Ka, his progeny, check out their page.


What is says on the tin. Angst and the gnashing of teeth, blood and tears, blah, blah, blah. You've been warned.

Origins
When encountered in the wild, Ven has known man shapes and titles-- undead vampire, lonely god... unrepentant nuisance. Though there may be pieces of the truth in each (especially that last one), the truth is much stranger. Ven is one of five beings who survived the death of their own universe, only to find themselves with unimaginable power in the one that came after.

One could not imagine what that initial experience must have been like, to be one thing, limited, but encompassed in all you know, and the next, bereft of your entire existence, but with the power to shape reality itself. There was wonder, and there was deep, aching grief, and not all of the Tesseracts made it through entirely sane.

Four of them spent much of their time in this new existence playing and exploring, up until they encountered life. It was not home, but it made almost all of them realize just how lonely they had been just the five of them. Several accidents also drove home to them just how delicate this life could be in the face of their raw elemental power, and terrified of losing it and finding themselves alone again, they all agreed to seal the majority of that power away so that they could interact safely with Earth's life.

All except one of them. Qyinn. While the other four Tesseracts deeply mourned their lost universe, they knew they could not go back, and for the most part, they processed this grief in the way they could. Qyinn was driven insane by it. It increasingly believed that if it could destroy this new universe, then it could recreate their old one from its scraps.

Barring that, it wanted oblivion.

But while Tesseracts can be grievously wounded, and even forced into eons long hibernation by their own kind, they cannot truly be killed. Qyinn came to believe that this was because their own essence had become enmeshed in the cosmic weave of the multiverse itself, and so, to achieve freedom, it must first destroy everything else.

Obviously, this could not be allowed. The other four Tesseracts imprisoned Qyinn's true self in its own pocket dimension like they had done to themselves, but they made the mistake of mercy. The blueprint for the prison they had created was much like their own, in that it allowed for an avatar of oneself to be created to interact with the world outside.

Qyinn did so, and into this avatar it poured all of its hatred, its grief, its longing for self destruction, effectively splitting those parts off from itself before unleashing it all into the world. This avatar made from Corruption and Rot began its campaign of destruction slyly, quietly, and by the time the others realized what had happened and returned to confront Qyinn, whole worlds had already been lost.

The Qyinn they returned to find was different, though, or at least acted so (some of the Tesseracts remain unconvinced). It claimed that in splitting that part of itself away and exercising its grief, it had gained clarity, and no longer longed for destruction. It wished very much to undo the damage it had done.

The Tesseracts were split on their decision. No one wanted to release Qyinn-- it had already become apparent just own conniving and desperate it could be-- but they also needed a solution to begin to undo the damage that Qyinn had already begun, and prevent further loss. And to do that, it would take all five of them.

Qyinn, who had refused to tie itself to a worldly element, but instead the Void, the stuff between stars, was the only one who knew the secrets to world walking. They would need Qyinn to pursue its avatar at all. And then a part of each of the four of them to restrain and temper the void. They would need a mortal to hold the finished essence, as each of them were far too powerful to be trusted to hold it alone.

In the end, four mortal families were chosen, as no single mortal was strong enough to bear all five essences at once, even in their reduced states. And having four families to shepherd ensured both a continued connection to the world for all of the Tesseracts-- a sense of continued responsibility-- and insurance, in case the worse came to pass.

The first of each of these families was blessed with a Herald-- the physical embodiment and seat of power through which their connection to their Tesseract would flow from them and into their families. There was the Dragon (Ven), the Leviathan (Maron), the unicorn (Edin), and the gryphon (Atobias). When a Herald Bearer would die, the Herald would find a new host within the family, and the essence would remain preserved. These four families were the first World Walkers.

But Qyinn, changed or otherwise, remained bitter that it was not trusted with its own connection. When it was time to add its own essence, it included a geas upon it that would act upon each of the other Tesseracts. They could not reveal the Walker's true nature to them, nor their origins, and if a Tesseract should aid a Walker, there must always be a price to be paid, ensuring that that the Tesseracts relationships to their clans would always appear transactional.

The other Tesseracts, severely weakened by their choice to place a piece of their very selves within the four Heralds, could do nothing to break the geas, or undo the connection they had to these mortals in order to get their power back. Worse, should the last of any of their clan die out, the Herald would vanish with them, and so too would that piece of themselves-- gone forever.

This all began a very, very long time ago, and is a power struggle between Qyinn and the other Tesseracts (and sometimes between themselves) that continues to this day.

Phoenicia
Ven arrived personally on Earth around 610 BCE, in a land that was once known as Phoenicia, situated along the Mediterranean coast, specifically in a city once and still known as Tyre.

When Ven first arrived, Tyre was enjoying a period of economic wealth and relative peace, and he was content to simply observe its people for a time. The first form he took on was not human, but a native snake he encountered. Only when a local man prevented his oxen from trampling him did Ven gain more interest in more closely interacting with humanity.

He did so, unfortunately, by following the man home and imitating his form and mannerisms while he observed him, which understandably frightened both the man and his family. Ven was forced to retreat, but he did ensure later that the man's family never saw much illness or poverty for the remainder of their lives as thanks.

Understanding that, perhaps posing as a strange doppleganger was not currying him much favor with the humans, Ven instead began to mimic bits and pieces of the appearances of those around him until he was a conglomerate of many different people. Many still found him familiar, but in a way that was, at least, no longer uncanny and frightening.

As he began to interact more with the locals, Ven would frequently find ways to accompany trading ships to experience other places and cultures along their routes, and because the ships he journeyed on never fell to storms or other maritime troubles, he began to gain a reputation as somewhat of a good luck charm.

It was sometime around this time that Qyinn created his destructive avatar and set it loose on creation. Ven was forced to give up some of his own essence to combat this event, and it left him very weak for a time when he returned to Tyre.

A local fishing family that he often went out with took him in and saw to his needs in the months where he was recovering. Ven continued to stay with them long after he had recovered, and grew close with their daughter, Ardea, who was a fierce and spirited soul, and who he greatly admired.

When Nebuchadnezzar II of the Neo-Babylonians began to grow hungry for expansion and turned their sights on Tyre, Ardea, a skilled sailor in her own right, began to harass their ships. Harassment turned into full blown piracy, and with her crew full of freed slaves from ships she pillaged from their empire, she became a real problem for the invaders. Ven would frequently join in her voyages.

Eventually, though, Ardea's luck ran out. With a considerable bounty on her head after killing one of the invader's esteemed officials, attacks on Ardea specifically ramped up until she was caught out alone one day.

Ven, having already sensed that things were getting dangerous, had been tracking her himself, and came across Ardea before the last of the life left her body. He had never attempted to alter one of Earth's creatures before, and wasn't sure he could, but the idea of losing Ardea to violence was too much for him.

He offered her the choice, and when she accepted, he gave her his blood in the hopes that it would heal her wounds and give her strength enough to recover.

Instead in transformed her, and the first of the Drakon-ka were born, though at this time, the only title that Ardea bore was survivor.

Ven too, found himself changed, curiously. He felt stronger, somehow around Ardea, stronger than he had felt since he had split his essence to gift to the Walkers. He also found that f he focused hard enough, wherever Ardea was, he could see through her eyes, or hear through her ears, or other strange and useful gifts.

When Ardea's father died of old age, and her brother was killed in a skirmish with the invading army, Ardea decided to take her elderly mother and the rest of her crew to Naucratis, a Greek settlement in Egyptian lands, further away from the war and the continued economic decline of Tyre.

Ven went with her. He had not turned anyone else since then, as Ardea, while still fierce and spirited, seemed... changed in more than just the physical. But he had taken under his wings several more humans, and one or two vampires, who he had since discovered could survive in the sun as long as his blood was in their system.

Naucratis
Ven stayed with Ardea in Naucratis for many years, though the two sometimes parted ways on their adventures, particularly when Ven made forays into Persia. Ardea much more preferred to stick to her ships, and disliked travelling over land.

He gained a couple more Drakon-ka during this time, and word of Ven began to spread in more arcane circles, particularly among vampires. Ven in turn continued to discover his reach and budding abilities through his followers-- a mutually beneficial arrangement, and the first structure that could truly be considered a temple to him was erected in a secret part of the city.

He had not quite gained 'god' status at this point, but those in the know knew of Ven and his ability to grant protection from the sun to vampire-kind, and Ven, always a little bit of a vain beast to begin with, never turned down any additional offerings given to him in turn.

When Ardea's mother finally passed, she drifted from Ven's orbit, growing restless, and when he moved on to Egypt, she did not immediately follow (though the two would find each other again later, just before the fall of the Suntouched).

Ancient Egypt
When Ven settled in Egypt, it was within the shadows of its later years (404–343 BCE). Egypt had finally succeeded in throwing off the rule of foreign invaders from Persia, and was enjoying a relative period of peace where temples were expanding and the old ways were being reclaimed. With them, Ven enjoyed a period of peace for another sixty years, quietly expanding his influence in the underbelly of Egypt. For Ven, it was a social game not to be taken too seriously, a time to play and experience humanity in all its flavors.

And doing so was hardly difficult. Egypt had a large population of vampires of its own, individuals from a culture of sun worshipers who could never see the sun again. The gift of Ven's own lifeblood would allow them to walk once more within its precious rays, and they saw him as a gift from the divine, if not divine in his own right. The ranks of the Suntouched swelled during this time, mostly composed of vampires and their mortal loved ones.

When Artaxerxes III reconquered Egypt, things got more serious. Ven lost several of his followers to Artaxerxes' reign of terror, though he managed to shield the majority of them from the worst of the conqueror’s acts by drawing on power from the part of himself that he had placed within the Walkers' Dragon bearer. With their religion and culture being actively destroyed, Ven's followers grew to immense numbers, no longer just vampires, but many mortal rebels as well.

The Suntouched didn't succeed in overthrowing these Persian invaders, but they were a constant thorn in their side up until Egypt was conquered once more in 332 BCE by Alexander the Great. By that time, the Dragon had vanished, presumed dead in some terrible cataclysm that Ven refused to talk about. Robbed of a significant portion of his power, he was not able to protect his people this time when the Roman armies came for them.

Despite the odds, many of Ven's people chose to continue to fight these new conquerors. Even with the additions of the vampiric ranks of the Suntouched, it was a bloodbath. This came as a great blow to Ven, who blamed himself personally for their deaths. He placed any survivors into a forced hibernation, to heal and sleep and wait for better days, and bade his mortal followers to flee and live their lives far from the Roman occupation if they could.

Then Ven himself went into a deep state of mourning driven hibernation and was not seen again until around 1870 when he popped up somewhere around Italy. Ven has traveled mostly in isolation since then.

The Modern World
Ven was aware of the fall of the Walkers, and even in his state of deep hibernation, felt their numbers shrink, already unbalanced by the loss of the last Dragon Bearer. He mourned that loss, but could do little to rectify the situation-- or so he thought. In truth, Qyinn had torn the injured spirit of fire from its previous host as he died to prevent its total annihilation, preserving it in a state of sleep until an appropriate host manifested in the bloodline.

When Krepta was born, Qyinn saw opportunity in her. The mother, Alyson, one of the few remaining Walkers left, had sought to hide the history of their family line from Krepta, and thus protect her from its horrors. Qyinn had other plans, and when it deemed Krepta old enough, it lured one of the beasts of Corruption to her home and allowed it to attack, stepping in at the last moment with an offer to protect Krepta, if Alyson would only pledge her young daughter to the Walker's cause.

Alyson accepted and Qyinn bound Krepta's soul to the Dragon's. It continued to hide the presence of Krepta from Ven over the years, with the design of molding this last Walker for itself without outside interference. Plans went well until a terrible act by another sometime in Krepta's late twenties caused her to lose control of her powers briefly, and the Dragon to emerge from her fully. The surge of power woke Ven to Krepta's presence and he found her curled up unconscious in a dark, seaside cave.

Qyinn's geas prevented Ven from exposing Qyinn and its schemes directly, but he could leave Krepta a gift-- a journal of her mother's, too recent to be from before the era of her supposed death. He laid other bread-crumbs too, popping up here and there under the guise of mischief or flirtation to lead her to a frozen, abandoned city once populated by the Walkers, or to offer her shelter from the eyes of Qyinn in exchange for services of her own. As long as it was well disguised, or seemed to be Krepta's idea, Ven could outwit the geas and lead her to the truth.

At least, this is his hope. And he knows, when that day comes, there will likely be a reckoning for all of them.