A few notes going forward:
1. This was originally made as an entry / act of trollery for froofroo's art contest in AF&S several months ago. That's why there's a horrible piece of art attached, and why the name ended up being On-W.
2. As it was my first foray into digital artistry, the portrait needs a lot of work on it for me to consider it good enough to include in a "votable" form.
On-W, the Beast
Name: On-W, the Planeswalking Beast
Classification: Beast Planeswalker
(gender irrelevant)
Color:
Home plane: Unknown
Background
On-W comes from a plane with little in the way of humanoid life, but a cornucopia of highly intelligent beasts of all kinds. Great creatures of power, gained from exposure to the wild and roiling mana — a force so brutal as to rip lesser beings apart — and their chimeric offspring have been gifted a measure of intelligence. The chaotic influence of the plane's mana has created not a single unified race across any of the native creatures; sapience has been given by happenstance, never constant. There has never been a planeswalker ascended from the hodgepodge collection of these self-aware beings.
Until now.
A new leader of The Ascendency has arisen.
Personality
On-W is a creature of great power, and it knows this for a fact. By blood, it is a huge wall of sinew and muscle, claws and fangs; by the ambient magic of its home plane, it is a vessel of wild mana, able to shrug off lesser magical attacks and unleash great bursts of its own spellcasting. Raised in an environment where the strongest lead and the weak are often killed one way or another, On-Wu is often haughty, seeing itself as a superior to most foes.
Far from being an unthinking beast, On-W is intelligent, and seeks very specifically to consume and obtain even more power, and to understand the source of its own. To that end, the beast constantly hunts down the strongest known power on every plane it visits, whether that power be a single individual, a governing body, or a magical school, hoping to find and absorb what it can before it moves off after other game. Due to its fearsome stature it often cannot approach these powers outright, and instead will set traps of all kinds, bringing the prey to itself. Knowing the value of the spoken word, On-W has carefully crafted legends and rumors about itself on several planes, hoping to lure its intended targets.
In counterpoint to this, On-W is not driven by violence alone. Its end goal is to become strong enough to dethrone the current leader of The Ascendency on its home plane, but it does so in the hopes of bringing a more peaceful coexistence than what the current leader enforces — which mostly involves creating a new nation by the slaughter of their unfortunate ungifted brethren. On-W thus sees violence as a means to an end, but only one of many, and often leaves its opponents and others who happen upon it alive. On the rare occasions that the beast is peacefully accepted to learn, it does so with relish, often offering its own wisdom and knowledge in exchange.
Appearance*
On-W is a massive specimen, easily standing more than twice the height of an average human. Even while lying down, it often has to bring its head down to look an average humanoid eye-to-eye. It bears a large resemblance to dire wolves, bearing fur over most of its body, with four digitigrade limbs ending in horribly hooked claws. Each paw, however, possesses an opposable digit, allowing On-W to grasp many things (although some smaller objects with a bit of difficulty), as well as climb easily. The beasts tail, strangely, is long and scaly, almost draconic, and ends in a bifurcated tip which possess a little dexterity of their own. Minotaur-like horns jut out from the sides of its head, which the beast keeps sharpened for combat.
Spellcasting
The beast has a peculiar manner of spellcasting, given its relatively unique relationship with mana. Its body acts as a receptacle for the mana it collects, holding and strengthening the beast even when not in combat. It can release this store mana explosively, or it can be accessed to power its spells, allowing quick and powerful spellcraft at the expense of personal stamina — though often opponents are so overwhelmed that the trade-off is easily justified.
More than that, however, On-W doesn't cast so much as call. Its primal connection with the green mana it uses allows it to assert its will with little in the way of ritual, spell circle, gateway, or rehearsed movement. Given its understanding of mana's ties to the land, the beast has come to see itself as "asking" the land and the aether to grant its request for specific spellwork or cantrips. On-W has a propensity toward deals and contracts, driven by this creed of its own deals with the forests it visits across the multiverse. Many simple verbal contracts it seals with magic, holding itself as much as the being it deals with to their word. But the beast is often cunning, willing to work around the magic which it knows the limits of to weave more takes and gain more power.
*Description of appearance subject to change.
Classification: Beast Planeswalker
(gender irrelevant)Color:
Home plane: Unknown
Background
On-W comes from a plane with little in the way of humanoid life, but a cornucopia of highly intelligent beasts of all kinds. Great creatures of power, gained from exposure to the wild and roiling mana — a force so brutal as to rip lesser beings apart — and their chimeric offspring have been gifted a measure of intelligence. The chaotic influence of the plane's mana has created not a single unified race across any of the native creatures; sapience has been given by happenstance, never constant. There has never been a planeswalker ascended from the hodgepodge collection of these self-aware beings.
Until now.
A new leader of The Ascendency has arisen.
Personality
On-W is a creature of great power, and it knows this for a fact. By blood, it is a huge wall of sinew and muscle, claws and fangs; by the ambient magic of its home plane, it is a vessel of wild mana, able to shrug off lesser magical attacks and unleash great bursts of its own spellcasting. Raised in an environment where the strongest lead and the weak are often killed one way or another, On-Wu is often haughty, seeing itself as a superior to most foes.
Far from being an unthinking beast, On-W is intelligent, and seeks very specifically to consume and obtain even more power, and to understand the source of its own. To that end, the beast constantly hunts down the strongest known power on every plane it visits, whether that power be a single individual, a governing body, or a magical school, hoping to find and absorb what it can before it moves off after other game. Due to its fearsome stature it often cannot approach these powers outright, and instead will set traps of all kinds, bringing the prey to itself. Knowing the value of the spoken word, On-W has carefully crafted legends and rumors about itself on several planes, hoping to lure its intended targets.
In counterpoint to this, On-W is not driven by violence alone. Its end goal is to become strong enough to dethrone the current leader of The Ascendency on its home plane, but it does so in the hopes of bringing a more peaceful coexistence than what the current leader enforces — which mostly involves creating a new nation by the slaughter of their unfortunate ungifted brethren. On-W thus sees violence as a means to an end, but only one of many, and often leaves its opponents and others who happen upon it alive. On the rare occasions that the beast is peacefully accepted to learn, it does so with relish, often offering its own wisdom and knowledge in exchange.
Appearance*
On-W is a massive specimen, easily standing more than twice the height of an average human. Even while lying down, it often has to bring its head down to look an average humanoid eye-to-eye. It bears a large resemblance to dire wolves, bearing fur over most of its body, with four digitigrade limbs ending in horribly hooked claws. Each paw, however, possesses an opposable digit, allowing On-W to grasp many things (although some smaller objects with a bit of difficulty), as well as climb easily. The beasts tail, strangely, is long and scaly, almost draconic, and ends in a bifurcated tip which possess a little dexterity of their own. Minotaur-like horns jut out from the sides of its head, which the beast keeps sharpened for combat.
Spellcasting
The beast has a peculiar manner of spellcasting, given its relatively unique relationship with mana. Its body acts as a receptacle for the mana it collects, holding and strengthening the beast even when not in combat. It can release this store mana explosively, or it can be accessed to power its spells, allowing quick and powerful spellcraft at the expense of personal stamina — though often opponents are so overwhelmed that the trade-off is easily justified.
More than that, however, On-W doesn't cast so much as call. Its primal connection with the green mana it uses allows it to assert its will with little in the way of ritual, spell circle, gateway, or rehearsed movement. Given its understanding of mana's ties to the land, the beast has come to see itself as "asking" the land and the aether to grant its request for specific spellwork or cantrips. On-W has a propensity toward deals and contracts, driven by this creed of its own deals with the forests it visits across the multiverse. Many simple verbal contracts it seals with magic, holding itself as much as the being it deals with to their word. But the beast is often cunning, willing to work around the magic which it knows the limits of to weave more takes and gain more power.
*Description of appearance subject to change.
Portrait
Alternate link to Portrait
