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dungeonsandblorbos · 11 days ago

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Because Father's Day is the funniest possible day to do this on, here's the last intro for the Starbreaker crew!

Anarac Fifth-blood: The Madman

He wants me to go back to it. The gods will die, wither away, soon if they cannot find relief beyond End’s barrier around the solar wheel. He wants me to go back to End. If I don’t do this, everything will be destroyed—maybe in a century, maybe in a millennium, but it will be. He wants me to go back to the stars. Didn’t I lose everything to protect the people of Illaros? I don’t remember anymore.

He wants me to go back there. He wants me to lose myself again. He wants me to surrender my death for a ceaseless torment.

Only distantly did Anarac realize he was shaking, a bit of that constant mental scream leaking out from between his clenched jaws.

“You won’t be doing battle with it,” Loqang promised. He reached out as if to take Anarac by the shoulder, but then seemed to think better of it. “This will be primarily an exploratory mission. Your purpose aboard the ship will be as a safeguard in case End does sense the mission’s presence. You won’t be engaging it directly—of course not. But you are familiar enough with its behavior to guide this crew down the safest path when skirting its edges.

“In addition…. I am loath to point this out, however, it’s clear you don’t belong here.” Loqang gestured to his realm, where the most loyal of fallen Illarian souls spent their time after death. “I would keep you for as long as I can, do not mistake my words. Yet it is a fact that a soul will wither when placed in an afterlife it doesn’t belong to. No one knows where the souls of your people went—much less what really caused them to go extinct in the first place. Now, this is mostly conjecture, but if no answers can be found on this side of End’s blockade, perhaps the other side holds what you seek. Or, perhaps, it will at least offer us the hope of finding other forces to ally with.” The god sighed tiredly. “I fear we are beginning to falter without relief.”

Beyond the blockade…. Anarac didn’t know what had happened to his people or their afterlife. He’d been long dead, long taken, before the mighty empire he’d been born into had been drowned in red sand. Any grief for that was a distant, dull thing. However, that afterlife…. The screams grew louder, but he hung on.

“Do you really think they might be out there?” Anarac asked, his voice grinding out like the rasp of an old millstone.

Loqang sighed again. “If the final resting place of the Araunian people is not beyond End, then it’s gone. This solar wheel is a small one in the grand scheme of things—one sun and nine planets. My allies and I have searched all of them and found no trace. We even spoke to the Heralds of the Creator.”

Anarac raised his eyebrows. The Creator was what this pantheon called the Sun.

“They were vague,” Loqang admitted. “We might be the Creator’s soldiers, but that does not mean we are equals. It was a lucky thing the Heralds even agreed to meet with us.”

The scream did not like him thinking this through. Anarac held the sides of his skull as he considered what might be his only option left. He had to get to that afterlife. But would passing through the gauntlet of his greatest tormentor with the prospect of being recaptured be worth it? Would he even be anything more than a husk out there? He could barely stay on his feet here in this marshland paradise. The prospect of sunset was enough to put a killing dread into his long-dead heart—what would he do at the sight of actual stars?

Probably freeze up. Probably go catatonic, or scream, or sob. Anarac looked down at his trembling hands. They still didn’t feel like his. And were they, really? He’d been born in this form and wore it now in death, yet for most of his existence, he’d been… something else.

I have to do this. Anarac curled his fingers into two shaking fists. If I can’t get to that afterlife, then I might as well just fade away. The only purpose I have left is out there. The only reason I have to be me and not it.

Closing his eyes, Anarac hung his head like a prisoner at the gallows. “I will go.”

“You’re certain?” Loqang asked. His voice was solemn, yet the relief was unmistakable.

Anarac buried his head in his hands, unable to respond, to remind himself again of the damning decision he’d just made. If he spoke on it again, it would be made more real than he wanted.

Seeming to take his despair for an answer, Loqang nodded. “You do all of us a great service. I truly do hope you find whom you seek out there.”

Welcome to the true mental rock bottom of the Starbreaker crew! Anarac has existed through life and death for 7000 years and maybe 29 of those were happy ones. But let's get into what exactly I did to this poor fucker!

As stated, Anarac was born 7000 years ago, in the mighty Araunian Empire, the greatest power of its time. However, for all the magical prowess and cultural heights of his people, Anarac was a humble sort. He dropped out of school when he was 17 because his pullout game is trash and he got his then-girlfriend, Eabain, pregnant. Following his passion for cooking, he ended up as a line cook at a dinner and did his best to support his young family. He and Eabain got married and three years later, had another baby. Finlay was the older boy, and was a quieter sort, while Baerdyn was the younger one and a bit of a firecracker. Anarac would've been happy living his life, saving up for a restaurant of his own, and being a loving husband and father.

However, all was not to be. Eabain realized that by settling down so early, she'd cut short her chance to study alchemy like she'd wanted. Rather suddenly, she left for another city and Anarac got divorce papers in the mail. Left with full custody of his kids, Anarac had to quit his cooking job to work as a security guard, since the money was better. Still though, he was making do. No, the real great tragedy of his life would come when he was 29.

There is a force on Illaros called End. Its eyes are what the people there know as the stars, and its one goal is to consume the gods and anything with a divine spark, such as a soul. It also has the power to possess people, and Anarac was just the malleable sort it was looking for. After many strange and confusing dreams where the stars whispered things to him, Anarac went to a local temple for relief. However, the moment he stepped under the starlight streaming in from a window, he was possessed and transformed into a monstrous, four-armed beast. End puppeted him into a year-long crusade slaughtering priests and razing temples in order to weaken the gods. There was little Anarac could do to resist, but he tried his damndest to stop the bloodshed, and eventually managed to trick End into nearly drowning the both of them. This made End realize Anarac had to be 'saddle broken,' so you could say.

End walked Anarac's body over to his old house and transformed to wear Anarac's old face. His sons, Baerdyn and Finlay, had been surviving there alone for a year after their father's mysterious disappearance. They were delighted to see him walk in the door, at least until he slaughtered the both of them. There was nothing Anarac could do to stop End. He lost his mind after that, pretty much - not that it wasn't already slipping. When a holy warrior cleaved his head from his body in an effort to stop the killings, Anarac's soul became a part of End. Just another one of its many consciousnesses, making up the greater whole. For 7000 years, he remained a part of it. At least until End tried the same trick again with another avatar, sent Anarac down as part of it to possess her, and she managed to free him. He ended up being placed in the heaven of Loqang, Illarian god of loyalty, for safe keeping, as ever since the Araunian Empire has all but blown up overnight around 1000 years after Anarac's death, no one could find their afterlife.

Anarac's quest now is to find that afterlife. He would long for nothing but oblivion at this point except for one simple fact: his sons' souls have to exist somewhere, and he is determined to find them and apologize. Since the Araunian afterlife can't be found within the solar wheel, perhaps it can be found beyond where End encircles the planetary system? It'll be tougher than it sounds though, especially since Anarac is the only one of the crew who actually knows what End is....

So, I wasn't lying when I said ya boy had Backstory, and not backstory. But how does he act? As you could probably predict, Anarac is horrifically traumatized by everything he's been through. He has an intense phobia of the stars and of other people, as he's afraid of losing control and killing them (he has no idea if End can't control him anymore or if it just hasn't tried again yet). He's largely non-verbal and has a tendency to dissociate into an all but catatonic state when things get to be too much for him. Old man vibes are off the charts - he's 7000 years old and feeling every one of them. However, underneath it all, Anarac is a truly brave and kind man. He cares deeply for the crew and not only their physical, but their mental, wellbeing. He's not always the best at actually helping them with their problems, but goddamn it, he'll try. Sometimes his age warps his perception a little, he tends to see other people as children, though he tries not to be demeaning. While the rest of the crew can be loud and bombastic, Anarac lurks quietly in the background, knowing more than he should and caring more than they know.

Appearence-wise, Anarac is around 6'0" and has a wiry build. His skin is a raspberry red, his hair is honey blond and pulled into a matted ponytail, and his ears are slightly pointed. His eyes are brown and if you look far enough into them, you can see the reflections of stars, like a burnt-in display on a computer monitor. He looks tired, just in general. In terms of attire, he's wearing the old Araunian security guard uniform he died in, so light armor and a tunic. A bloody wound encircles his throat - the result of his death be decapitation. Alas, he can't take his head off though, so it's kinda just a circle around his neck.

Fun facts time! I'm sure there are some in there....

Anarac, as mentioned, has a passion for cooking. He wanted to open up a resteraunt when he was alive and while dead, he's on a smaller quest to find out if ghosts can eat or not.

He's bisexual! However, this doesn't matter much at all since pretty much everyone is too young for him....

Since he's been dead so long, he's forgotten most mortal sensations, including pain and exhaustion. He would be a formidable opponent in a fight if he wasn't a strict pacifist.

He's actually been having some fun learning about science on this trip - he was never very educated in life, so why not learn about the rock cycle in death?

He's a truly terrible liar.

And that's a wrap for the intrepid crew of the R.S. Starbreaker! Anarac plays a very important role within this voyage as the only crew member who knows anything about End. Let's just hope he's able to open up about it and the rest of the crew actually believes their resident crazy guy who refuses to leave the cargo hold....

Have a bitchin' day and thanks for reading <3

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#oh i love him #poor old man #father's day really is the funniest day to post this #writers supporting writers #other people's ocs #other people's writing

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