 | |
| Age | 19 (Vol 1 Ep 1), 20 (Current) |
| Alias | Cheshire |
| Status | Active |
| Color | Onyx |
| Gender | Male |
| Race | Faunus (Lynx) |
| Born | September 12th |
| Complexion | Fair |
| Hair | Black |
| Eyes | Bright Green |
| Semblance | Disappearing Act |
| Height | 5'9" (Excluding Feline Ears) |
| Weight | 170 lbs |
| Affiliation | Beacon Academy (Formerly) |
| Team | Team SPAD (formerly), Huntsman team with Alice, Helena, and Penelope (Currently) |
| Partner | Alice Nightshade |
| Occupation | Huntsman |
| Emblem | 
|
| Likes | Spending time with his wife Alice, Tasty food (especially sweets), Video games |
| Dislikes | The White Fang, Ignorant people (bullies, racists, etc) |
Appearance[]
Darian is a young man with fair skin, black hair, and bright green eyes. He usually wears dark colors(blacks, blues, and dark greys) and long clothes. He usually wears baggy blue pants, black combat boots, and a dark grey 1/4 zip sweater with holes cut in the sleeves for him to place his thumbs trough, leaving his palms covered and his fingers exposed, and a zipper down the neck, which he usually wears half closed. He also wears black knee pads, lightweight mechanic gloves, a scroll mount on his left wrist, and a black long coat. He carries his weapon, a large sword called the Nocturne, using a magnetic backpack.
After the fall of Beacon Darian upgraded his outfit with the addition of an armored vest and forearm guards made of high strength ballistic grade polymers. The vest is made of a series of polymer plates of various sizes on top of a fabric vest made of Kevlar and carbon fiber. The separation of the plates allows Darian to maintain a full range of movement while being protected by the armor. The armor also contains several magnetic plates on the back section, allowing Darian to eliminate the need for his magnetic back pack while still being able to sheath his sword.The forearm guards are made of the same polymer and constructed in a clam-shell manner. The arm guards are adjustable able to either be worn against bare skin or over top of his trench coat and have a slot to secure a scroll.
Physically Darian is a very memorable person with a large set of cat ears on the top of his head and a scar running over his mouth. In addition to the scar on his face he has several scars on his body; a large laceration scar on his right collar bone, an impalement scar on his lower right abdomen, and a large stitched laceration on his left side.
Darian's casual outfit is a simple ensemble, consisting of a black ribbed high neck jacket, blue jeans, and a light grey t-shirt. For pajamas Darian usually wears a pair of sweat pants or running shorts, depending on the season, and a pair of socks.
Personality[]
Darian is a rough around the edges sort of person, preferring solitude with Alice over interaction with other people. While not entirely sociable, Darian does his best to remain polite while engaging with people and constantly answers teachers questions when no one else will. However his politeness has its limits and is generally at odds with his over all blunt approach on how to explain things, often not even realizing he had said something in a blunt and (sometimes) insensitive way until after he had said it. Even when he is trying to take a measure of his brash personality Darian will generally choose to be blunt rather than to be polite. Beyond that, all pretense of politeness is dropped when Darian is dealing with ignorance, slamming the person with facts in an attempt to educate through berating. If a person's ignorance is beyond defeating (as in cases of extreme racism) Darain will often result to violence if possible, choosing to beat some sense into a person. Darian is also prone to underestimating people who he finds being victimized (bullied, assaulted, etc.) subconsciously feeling that they can't defend themselves and need his protection.
At his core Darian is truly a heroic person, doing his best to defend those he perceives to be weaker than him. He will often jump into the middle of a fight if he feels it is unbalanced and generally attempts to defend the 'weaker' people with violence. This need to defend others stems from his self condemnation over the loss of his mother and sister. He blamed himself in part for their death and afterwords swore to be strong enough to never loose another person he cared about again. This drive pushed him to become as powerful as he is, as well as possessing him to save as many people as possible, whether it be from a minor injustice or an attempt on their life. However he blames himself for the failures and injuries of his peers, no matter how far out of his control it was.
Unfortunately for Darian below his gruff heroic personality lies an ocean of rage and anger, formed over the years due to the losses and trauma he suffered during his childhood. As a child Darian's rage tended to make him a magnet for Grimm, especially while traveling between villages in the wilds. Thankfully between his time with Daiyu Zhinnu and further training while at Forge Academy Darian has manged to bury his Anger deep within his soul, a smoldering coal constantly burning. Unfortunately for Darian that coal can never be extinguished. In times of extreme emotional stress, generally caused by his loved ones being put in extreme danger or suffering extreme injuries, Darian can be overwhelmed by his rage. When this happens he will fly into a near berserker rage, cleaving and smashing his way through enemies without regard for their safety or his own, looking only to exercise his fury upon them. Thankfully, he managed to keep his rage in check most of the time.
Darian also has, as he has referred to it, a 'more enlightened view on the academic concept of good and evil'; believing that there is no such thing as good and evil. He instead believes that each person, no matter how deplorable their actions or intents, believes themselves to be good; thus making everyone opposing them evil. Thus at the same time a person can be considered good, by the people following them, and evil, by the people opposing them. Darian doesn't even believe the creatures of Grimm to be evil, instead thinking of them as dangerous wild animals that are following their instincts and must be killed to protect the weak. Despite his views on good and evil Darain still accepts that some people are bigger monsters than the creatures of Grimm, no matter whether they be viewed as good or evil.
In his free time Darian often works on rebuilding an totaled muscle car that he purchased after entering beacon academy, feeling that the act of repairing and creating the vehicle is a stark and needed change from combat. He also spends as much time as possible with his girlfriend Alice, who he is deeply in love with. Darian feels that Alice is the one bright point in his life, keeping him from becoming like the monstrous people he despises.
Darian feels a combination of hate and disappointment for the White Fang, feeling that they constantly fail to carry out the promises they make to faunus kind. He partly blames them for the death of his mother and sister; hating the organization for failing to protect them.
Abilities[]
Being a faunus, Darian has near perfect night vision as. He's also got a good amount of physical strength that he's developed over the years from swinging around his massive sword. Due to his faunus trait he also has a heightened sense of hearing and balance.
Mentally Darian has a significantly above average IQ and a very analytical thought process. In daily life this allows him to be able to come to a beneficial decision quickly; in combat Darian uses his mental prowess to quickly analyze his opponents strengths and weaknesses and attempt to exploit them.
Darian has trained extensively in both swordsmanship and hand to hand combat allowing him to stand toe to toe with most everyone in close quarters combat. His sword skills are based around a combination of continuous circular strikes to whittle down an enemy's defenses and devastating strikes to break them. His hand to hand combative form is a combination of several styles Darian learned growing up, combining them into a lethal technique that focuses on rapidly disabling, crippling, and killing an enemy.
His skills with fire arms and other ranged weapons are limited but enough to allow him to be proficient with their use. His knowledge of dust is limited to it being used as a power supply or as an explosive.
Darian's combat strategy consists of four basic sub strategies. The first sub strategy is known as 'rapid dominance'. Using this strategy Darian quickly rushes his opponent and attempts to end them with a series of fast, hard hitting blows meant to penetrate their defenses and strike them hard before they have an ability to fight back. He will often attempt to kill or debilitate his enemy (depending on the enemy) during this assault, hoping to end the fight quickly.
The second sub strategy is for Darian to pull back out of the line of sight and attack with a series of sneak attacks. While fighting this way Darian will often wait for a clean shot with the rail gun form of Nocturne or quickly dash in with his semblance for a few rapid hard hits before retreating back out of the line of sight. This strategy gives him the advantage and time to recover and probe his enemies weaknesses, and is generally used to give him a chance to catch his breath or formulate a strategy against his opponent.
His third sub strategy is to sneak up and use his semblance, strength, and faunus abilities to get the drop on an opponent and hit them when their aura defenses are low. This strategy usually involves either dropping in on the opponent from a strange angle or getting behind them and attempting to knock them out with a sleeper hold.
The last sub-strategy is simply to face the opponent in an open fight. While very skilled and able to hold his own in a fight Darian prefers not to use this strategy as it is less a strategy and more an effect of poor planning or foresight. Darian abides by the idea that 'a fair fight is a stupid fight' and prefers to stack as many odds in his favor to win before the fight even gets started.
Semblance:[]
Darian's semblance is known as the Disappearing Act. Disappearing Act allows Darian to perform an nearly-instantaneous dash up to 10 meters away. The dash is so fast that Darian can scale vertical surfaces without trouble and he can use the dash up to ten times in rapid succession before having to stop briefly to regain his energy (roughly 5 seconds). However, the Disappearing Act is not without its draw backs. Each dash requires Darian to plant his footing, leaving him vulnerable for a second in between the dashes. The Disappearing Act also leaves a trail of Darian's black aura behind him, allowing a keen enemy to follow which direction he went. A side effect of using the Disappearing Act is that Darian's eyes begin to glow, often leaving a pair of eyes floating in the air after his first dash.
After some extensive training with his team after the fall of Beacon, Darian developed the ability to use his semblance without the need to kick off of anything at twice the energy consumption per dash. This allows him to maneuver mid-air or on a slick surface to start his dash. However, this does nothing to slow his momentum at the end of his dash should he still be mid-air or on the slick surface.
Combat Stats:[]
Swordsmanship: 9/10
Hand to Hand: 8/10
Speed: 5/10
Dust Usage: 2/10
Ranged Weapons: 4/10
Semblance Usage: 7/10
Agility: 8/10
Equipment[]
Primary Weapon:[]
Nocturne[]
Darian's weapon is a large sword known as the Nocturne. The blade measures 54 inches from tip to pommel and is roughly 5.125 inches wide with a 1 inch thick blade. The Nocturne's alternate form is that of a rail gun; the blade splits down the middle to open a gap, creating a four sided magnetic field to accelerate the .5 inch wide steel rods that are used as it's ammunition. When the blade opens up the shoulder guard slides back, bridging the gap in the area for the hilt and a hologram sight is deployed out of the side of the weapon. The rods are loaded in from the blunt edge of the weapon in a slot that is covered in sword form by the shoulder guard. The magnetic acceleration is powered by powdered lightning dust that is installed behind the slot for the steel rods. Darian also uses dust filled steel rods that are designed to explode after penetrating a target. The dust becomes unstable upon impact and detonates in less than a second, exploding the round violently.
Other Equipment:[]
Wireless head set:[]
Darian and the other members of Team SPAD carry wireless ear bud head sets that connect with their scrolls, allowing them to communicate with each other while separated.
Magnetic Backpack[]
The magnetic backpack is Darian's primary way of carrying the Nocturne while not in combat. The backpack uses a large electromagnet powered by containers of powdered lightning dust to keep the sword attached. This was dropped after the fall of Beacon in favor of an integrated magnetic pieces in his armored vest.
Backstory[]
Darian Nightshade was born Darian De la Sol to Magnolia De la Sol and Rufous De la Sol in a town that was populated exclusively by faunus; most of them being members of the White Fang. Darian's mother was an expert huntress and his father was a mid-level bureaucrat within the White Fang. Together they had planned to use their combined strengths to usher in a new era for faunus kind. However that changed when Darian was six. On their way back from a diplomatic meeting with human leaders the De la Sol family was caught in a massive car crash that grievously injured Rufous, killed Magnolia, and forced Darian to awaken his Aura in order to protect his sister Angela. At the time the crash appeared to be an accident, but members of the White Fang believed it to be an assassination attempt on the De la Sol family.
This event was a major turning point in Darian's life. Rufous used the assault on his family and the death of his wife in order to gain political favor and move up in the ranks of the White Fang, pushing for the organization to become more militaristic. As Darian's father become more wrapped up in the politics of the White Fang he drew away from his family more and more, leaving Darian to raise his sister. Rufous' actions began to make Darian loath the White Fang, him believing at the time that the organization was corrupting his father.
Six years after his mother's death a human group of assailants attacked their house. In the assault Darian's sister was killed, launching the boy into a fit of rage that managed to get him impaled on a spear and while killing most of the would be assassins killed. It was while Darian was recovering from his injuries that he discovered that his father had been using Angela's death in an attempt to garner him more support and political favor to send him farther up the political ladder of the White Fang.
So at the age of twelve Darian decided to run from his past, leaving the White Fang and his father behind him. The boy managed to slip out of his hospital room, which was barely being watched, and began running for the outskirts of town. Before the boy got too far he was nearly ran over by a large truck, the vehicle swerving at the last second to avoid hitting him. As the boy laid thereon the side of the road, having thrown himself out of the way of the truck with his semblance, he was found by the truck's driver Daiyu Zhinnu. The woman found the boy bleeding and asked him if he needed to get to the hospital. He adamantly refused, asking instead to be taken to the next town over. After a few moments the woman agreed and helped him into the truck as she headed out of the town and into the wilds, the boy quickly falling asleep. In the morning, just outside of the next village over Daiyu asked him for his name, a question that almost dumbfounded him. If he was running away from his past he couldn't keep going by the name Darian De la Sol. After a few moments of feigning to still be disoriented by the events of last night he decided to use his mothers maiden name Nightshade as his own.
Over the next two years Darian trained with Daiyu, learning to fight both with his hands and with a sword, as well as learning to be a mechanic by helping her as she traveled from village to village fixing the machines that kept them alive. It was actually Daiyu who helped Darian form his first weapon, a large basic sword, after she saw him wielding a massive wrench, swinging it around and using it to cave in Grimms head when they were attacked while in the wilds one night. Upon arriving at the next town Daiyu took him to the nearest blacksmith and had the wrench melted down and reformed into a blade.
When Darian was fourteen he met a strange girl by the docks. She had dark skin, blonde hair, was dressed in rags and identified herself as "Subject Alpha-One-Charlie-Three". When he asked what she was doing he the girl explained that she was from a foreign country and had stowed away on a ship to run away from men who had been conducting some sort of experiment on her for several years. The fact that someone had been experimenting on this girl greatly upset Draian and he swore to himself to protect her and invited her to join him in going to a combat academy. She agreed and he named her Alice after the identifying tattoo she had on her left arm.
After a few weeks of living with Alice, she and Darian applied to Forge Academy and after a rigorous application process, both were accepted into the academy. During their time at Forge the two became very close, eventually falling in love and becoming a couple. Both Darian and Alice excelled at the academy, scoring high in academic classes as well as combat classes from the events in their past.
After graduating Forge Academy, Darian and Alice were both accepted into Beacon Academy where they were teamed up with a hare faunus named Kane and a flamingo faunus named Penelope. The four have begrudgingly worked together on the team for the past two years, doing their best to stay out of each others way.
During his third year of school at Beacon Darian began hearing rumors that his father was in town and began searching for him. To do this Darian adopted the persona of Professor Genki, an eccentric faunus with pink hair. After several weeks of searching for his father Darian finally found him in a rally and was able to confront the man. Whatever Darian's expectations were he could never have what his father had revealed to him. Rufous admitted that he was behind both Magnolia's death and the event that resulted in his sister's presumed death. This information shook him deeply but it was the next large revelation that changed the man drastically.
During the battle of Beacon Darian faced off against a White Fang soldier using his mother's sword. Angered by the violation of his mother's memory Darian pursued the woman violently and eventually unmasked her. After a few moments of continued fighting Darian realized the girl he was fighting was his sister. Before either could extensively discuss anything the Dragon Grimm began assaulting Vale, allowing Angela a chance to escape and leaving her brother in a blood lust rage for anyone in the white fang.
After the battle of Beacon Team SPAD decided to forego any further training and become huntsmen and huntresses as they currently were, not wishing to simply stand aside as the world was falling apart. At this time Darian came to the conclusion that life was too short and proposed to Alice, having planned to do so when they had graduated and considered this as good of a graduation as any. Thankfully Alice accepted happily and they were married shortly afterwords in a small and private ceremony. Darian, Alice, and Penelope parted ways with Kane, choosing to begin working in a hunter group with Alice's mom Helena Tenar traveling with her in her ship as they moved from hot spot to hot spot to quell the surge of Grimm assaults.
Trivia[]
Dairan's name has several color meanings,
- Can mean 'Upholder of good' which would make the color name White (traditional meaning of the name)
- Can mean 'Wealth and affluent' which would make the color name Gold (Persian meaning)
- Is derived from the name Daren which can mean 'Born at night' which would make the color name Black (African meaning)
- Is derived from the name Darren which can mean 'Burnt land or hill' making the color name Grey (Gaelic)
Darian's team name SPAD (pronounced spade) is a reference to the spade suit in playing cards.
The polymer plates for Darian's armor is based off of the M3 plates of DKX Body Armor.
Image Gallery[]
