Valen Cinders

Valen is a young man with an average build, black hair, and average to tan skin. He is nothing special looking. He is a typical young man... until he shifts into one of his many alternative forms. These forms, he acquires through a most unusual method.

When Valen turned 21 he was plagued with headaches. They grew so bad that he went to a doctor, but after a year of tests, still no answer was found... until one evening when he was out for an evening run. A headache hit him, so painful it nearly dropped him to the ground. He looked around, but there was no one to help him. What he did see was a dying wolf. Oddly, his headache eased every time he focused on the creature. The closer he walked to the wolf, the less his head hurt. At last he found himself sitting right beside the beast, the pain but a distant twinge of what it once was. Then, the dying animal reached out and set its paw on Valen’s hand, and with its touch he could feel the consciousness of the wolf being absorbed into his body. Then, the wolf’s corps faded away into nothingness. Suddenly Valen knew what a wolf knew, could see, hear, and smell what a wolf could, and... he could transform into the wolf.

Valen ran through the forest in his wolf form, but he soon found out that it wasn’t just any dead or dying animal that he could absorb. It was only a soul (sentient or not) that was dying but wasn’t ready to die — a soul with unfinished business. These souls, if he touched them at death, he would absorb their essence and their form. A darker side later was discovered, that if he were to take a life and look it in the eye as he killed it, he could forcibly take their mind, their form, and their essence. This, however, is a method Valen has only used once.